Thanks so very much Ethfol. Its this kind of comment that keeps us motivated! And please everyone remember. This is Hive Tracks Version 1. Version 2 is in the planning stage and will be hosted by years end. By next spring Hive Tracks Version 3 will be even more powerful because we issued the previous versions early and then said to our members... "What's missing?" And man have they every answered! Hive Tracks will get better, MUCH better and its all becausse of YOU!

07-27-2010, 08:31 PM

honeydreams

Re: Official Launch of Hive Tracks

I have to say that is a very good site you built best one I ever used thanks the onlt thing I would do difrent is add were you can show how much Honey one take off each hive. But other then that Great job!

07-27-2010, 10:55 PM

jajtiii

Re: Official Launch of Hive Tracks

I also like the site a lot.

From a usability perspective, I believe that the Date fields should only have validation done after the cursor leaves the field. Personally, I am used to going in and changing 07/26/2010 to 06/23/2010 by simply clicking within the month, backspacing and typing in a 6 where a 7 was. It seems that the code tries to validate/correct it on each change in the field, which creates a big mess when you try to do it the way I described. Effectively, to change a date, I have to remove the whole original and retype it all again.

When I tried to put in several inspections, the second inspection pulled in all of the data from the first one, as I was trying to enter it. This created a problem on some of the second and third windows, as some of these items were radio buttons and there was no way to deselect the options completely. I would assume that closing my browser would fix this, but it would be good if the data was cleared out on successful save.

For an upgrade function, it would be nice if there were a way to track a few bits of your own metadata, that you as a beekeeper could maintain. Having a page where you could enter metadata and then having a page for each hive where you could check those bits that were relevant to that inpsection, would be great. An example might be that I could enter the following items : Fed 1 Gallon Syrup, Fed 2 Quarts Syrup, Fed Pollen Patty, Fed Dry Megabee, Took Frame of Brood for a Swarm Catch/Cut out, Moved old frames to outside, etc.. Then, these would populate a form on the inspection sheet and allow me to check what I wanted for each inspection (and I could go back and add more, delete old ones or edit existing ones at a later date.)

07-28-2010, 07:13 AM

mhenson

Re: Official Launch of Hive Tracks

All excellent points that are now on the list. The thing with not being able to reset radio buttons in the inspection dialog is a really a bug that I will fix. The meta data thing has been requested in one form or another by other users and will also be on the todo list. Thanks for taking the time write a thoughtful review.

07-28-2010, 08:48 AM

mhenson

Re: Official Launch of Hive Tracks

Honey harvesting is at the very top of the todo list for Hive Tracks. We really should have waited to finish that before going public but because we needed to appear at the EAS conference in Boone we had no choice. Honey Harvest data in Hive Tracks is next for sure!

07-28-2010, 09:00 AM

Bee Kid

Re: Official Launch of Hive Tracks

I looked at the demo and really liked it. I've been using Beetight for quite awhile and I'm not sure about switching over because I'll lose all my inspections saved on Beetight. It looks really great!

Bee Kid

07-28-2010, 09:12 AM

sqkcrk

Re: Official Launch of Hive Tracks

How would this sytem benefit someone w/ 600 cols?

07-28-2010, 09:42 AM

mhenson

Re: Official Launch of Hive Tracks

I will soon have a feature to import the inspections exported by bee tight. I've been looking at their exported data and its pretty simple. The only problem is it gives me nothing about the hives and yards. So... I will automatically create a new yard and hives in Hive Tracks with the new inspedtions and then you can move stuff around from there using the "Edit/Cut" menu. Sound good?

07-28-2010, 09:52 AM

mhenson

Re: Official Launch of Hive Tracks

Hive Tracks supports any number of hives, any number of yards. If you try to put too many colonies in one yard the image we render gets pretty large. So for 600 colonies I would split them up into logical yards even if they are not really separate. For example you could put 300 in the "east side" yard and 300 on the "west side" yard. Be sure to see the last page of the Create Hive Wizard; it lets you create up to 300 hives with one click!

07-28-2010, 10:00 AM

mhenson

Re: Official Launch of Hive Tracks

Let me modify this response a bit. While its possible to put 300 hives in a single yard it might be better to split it up even more. Perhaps more like 200 or 100 per yard. It just like files in a folder. It’s better to have a few folders with understandable names than to have all your files on your desktop!

07-28-2010, 10:06 AM

mhenson

Re: Official Launch of Hive Tracks

There have been some concerns over speed which we are working on. In the meantime however you can get a much better response from Hive Tracks by using a non-Microsoft browser like Firefox or Chrome. IE 8 works OK but IE 7 is slow as Christmas.

07-28-2010, 10:58 AM

Bee Kid

Re: Official Launch of Hive Tracks

Thanks for the info, I will be awaiting the upgrade so I can transfer my inspections from Beetight to Hive Tracks.
Thanks.

Bee Kid

07-28-2010, 11:09 AM

Bee Kid

Re: Official Launch of Hive Tracks

Not to bother you but I noticed one thing on the test demo. I was going to add a solid bottom board below the screen bottom board but when I added it it was above the screen bottom board, so I selected it and pushed the "Move Down" button but it didn't do anything. It's probably nothing but it just caught my interest.

Bee Kid

07-28-2010, 04:36 PM

Ethfol

Re: Official Launch of Hive Tracks

Quote:

Version 2 is in the planning stage and will be hosted by years end.

Can't wait for that!!! I'm sure that EAS will go well! You've got a great program with a lot of potential! Keep up the good work!!

07-31-2010, 07:30 AM

TripleH

Re: Official Launch of Hive Tracks

Mark,
Just did a full inspection yesterday and found Hives Tracks a terrific help. Can't wait for the planned updates to the system. Thanks and keep up the great work on the program.
Best,
Tim Hayes

07-31-2010, 12:48 PM

mhenson

Re: Official Launch of Hive Tracks

Thanks so much Tim. This post is what we want to hear. People use and benefit from that use.

07-31-2010, 02:27 PM

sqkcrk

Re: Official Launch of Hive Tracks

Got into it a little bit and then Internet Explorer said that it had to abort, or something like that.

I can imagine that Hive Tracks is a neat tool for the micro managing beekeeper. And/or, the beekeeper who is really trying to keep track of what they did in each individual hive and yard, especially if you are a bee breeder I guess. But I stopped writing down what i did in each yard a number of years ago and I certainly don't go back and read them or get much out of them when I do. So, I doubt that I will be using Hive Tracks.

From the little I saw, Hive Tracks looks like a good and potentially useful tool for some beekeepers. Thanks mark for designing it, bringing it to the attention of beesource members and taking the constructive comments to heart and improving your product. Best of luck to you and your users.

I still like a paper and pencil to remind me of what I need to do. If I can find them at the time. Otherwise, it don't matter that much.

07-31-2010, 04:58 PM

mhenson

Re: Official Launch of Hive Tracks

2 things:

1. You got the error because you are using an older version of IE. I would fix it but I can't (thanks a lot Microsoft.) The solution is to upgrade your browser (or use something like Firefox).

2. I hear ya on the detailed notes thing. I must confess my note taking is weak too. But Hive Tracks is in its infancy. We're working on an "instrumented hive" technology that will change beekeeping forever. It’s going to be a while before its available but when it does come out, hives will deliver their own data to Hive Tracks. It will be far more accurate than the notes humans take. When collected and analyzed in large amounts we will be able to deliver a level of understanding of beekeeping that is unprecedented. We will NEVER be caught flat-footed again by something like CCD. It’s ambitious but that’s the plan.

07-31-2010, 07:31 PM

sqkcrk

Re: Official Launch of Hive Tracks

Laudable goals Mark. i like a person w/ initiative and ambition.

I'm not geek enuf to upgrade to be able to use Hive Tracks. I'll muddle through some how. i'm sure the younger beekeepers coming up will use it to it's maximum potential and that it will be for them a useful tool.

Again, my best wishes.

08-01-2010, 08:29 AM

mac

Re: Official Launch of Hive Tracks

Tried to create a hive and the next button will not move past the first page. Using firefox on powerbook system 10.3.9. Can't upgrade to anything without getting a new computer. (like thats going to happen.) ;-]